Man with hundreds of indecent images is spared jail

Jordon Zachwatajlo, 27, of Lime Avenue, Colchester, was found to have more than 150 category A images on his laptop in 2018.

He also had 382 category C images, as well as six moving images of extreme pornography on his device.

Some of the images included children as young as seven to eight-years-old, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Michael Crimp, prosecuting said a combination of factors had led to Zachwatajlo’s offence.

He said: “When interviewed, the defendant made a full and frank acknowledgement of having these images.

“Somebody had sent a link, and he downloaded the image from links he had been sent.

“At the time he was depressed because of a medical condition that he was suffering, and he was unemployed.

“He has no previous convictions against him.”

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Sebastian Cox, mitigating, gave further detail of Zachwatajlo’s medical condition and said this, combined with his suffering from depression, caused him to make what Mr Cox described as “the biggest mistake of his life”.

He said: “He used to be popular but at the age of 20 he had symptoms of hyperhidrosis, where he sweats profusely at all times. This circle of friends then shrunk and he was truly and utterly alone.

“He went down the rabbit hole of seeing the darkest corners of the internet, which was one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

“He fully accepted he should never have done that in the first place, and I would submit that he will never be in this situation again.”

Judge David Pugh said Zachwatajlo would have been imprisoned for a year had he not admitted to possessing the indecent images of children.

He said: “Were it not for your guilty pleas, the overall criminality would be as a 12 month prison sentence – I shall suspend that for 24 months.”

He must also do 140 hours unpaid work